Catch and Look After Wild Mice
Do you want a challenge? Do you want a pet that is a bit unusual? Do you want a pet you will love and cherish and remember if looked after properly? If you answer yes to any of these questions, read on!
Steps
- Buy a humane trap. The tip traps work best. Put a bit of peanut butter at the end of the trap and set it out where ever you think the mice are likely to go.
- Check your trap every day, and hopefully it will be closed! When it is, get a big high sided container with a lid (this isn't your cage) and put your trap in with the mouse still inside. Open the trap door and wait until your mouse comes out.
- Be very careful! Many mice carry diseases, and you should only keep it if you are very experienced in keeping mice.
- Watch your mouse. It might be a vole, and if it is, don't worry! Voles are just as lovable, and in some circumstances easier to tame!
- Give it some food and drink. For now, give it bits of fruit and vegetables.
- Leave it in its box for a couple of days to get used to captivity. NEVER try to hold your mouse the same day you catch it.
- This break gives you the perfect opportunity to get all the things you need to care for your mouse from the pet shop. The first thing you will need is a cage. Look for a Glass aquarium with a screen lid. Rotastak cages do not work. Do not worry if they escape. Just put the original trap out and shut the front door and they will come back.
- Get a range of toys (you might like to get an exerciser ball for your mouse, they LOVE them) for your cage and a water bottle and a food bottle and a nest box of your choice, and set everything up in a fun way for your mouse. Also buy some hamster cereal and some mouse treats and some puppy treats. Hide these in little crevasses for your mouse to find. For bedding, use aspen wood shavings.
- Put your mouse in his/her new cage and let him/her explore for the rest of the day! Tomorrow you will start his training!Now then, you have everything you need to start a brilliant relationship with your mouse.
- Feed the mouse some cereal and a few of the treats of vegetables, every morning. Give them any bits left over from your salads, give them brown bits off your old lettuce, whatever. Remember, these are WILD by birth mice, not TAME by birth mice. They are very immune to food.
- Clean your cage THOROUGHLY every week. Wild mice do make a BIG smell when not cleaned. Get a pet safe disinfectant and clean everything in your cage.
- Tame your mouse. First, put on your strong gloves. Then try to find your mouse. Be gentle! When you have got your mouse, take him/her gently in you hands OVER the cage in ONE hand so you have one hand free to block your mouse from running up your arm. Do this as much as you can.
- Repeat these steps, until you are really confident about holding him/her. Then start to take your hand out of the cage. Don't move very far, so you can rush back to the cage if your mouse makes a move to jump. Gradually move further and further away from the cage until you can move a couple of rooms away. Then take your gloves off and start again from the cage outwards.
- Open your hand so he/she can move about on your hand. Start from the cage outwards again, as before. Be very careful with this, and if your mouse tries to walk off your hand have your other and ready for him/her to walk onto.
- Repeat this process and you will soon, with a bit of patience, have a loving pet! Why not try to catch another one for company?! Why not try new toys with him/her? Its up to you! There is a whole world of fun to be had with your little mouse! Good luck!
Tips
- Wild Mice like treats, and it is good if you feed them some puppy treats, this provides meat protein which they need.
- Hold your mouse regularly, but never hold your mouse more than 5 times a day, it will out stress on him/her if you hold him/her to long.
- Keep on trying!
- Once you get your new pet, take him/her to the vet before handling, mice can carry deadly diseases and nasty parasites!
- If you have caught a vole (which has a short tail), put one inch of gravel on the bottom of it's tank and fill it most of the way with mulch. This allows the vole to burrow.
Warnings
- Always wear gloves at first, for they may bite if they don't trust you completely.
- Do not be surprised if your mouse chews through the plastic walls of your cage. Simply patch the hole with black carpet tape and block it with a stone, then try again.
- Still be careful handling your mouse if you get the ok from a vet, even mice that were fine when you got them could get diseases from the air!
- If you do this, never handle your pet with bare hands. Wild mice can carry deadly diseases and parasites
Things You'll Need
- A humane trap
- A cage
- Pet safe disinfectant
- A pair of thick gloves
- A hose pipe
- A water bottle
- A food bowl
- Toys
- Mouse treats
- Mouse food
- Puppy treats
